


By The Creed

by orphan_account



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The X-Files, Wolverine (Movies), Wolverine and the X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Angst, Attempted Abortion, Child Abandonment, Emotional Manipulation, Empath, Mutant Powers, Reconciliation, Sorry Not Sorry, Teen Pregnancy, Uncle-Niece Relationship, messed up story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-01
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-10-26 08:51:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10783527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Logan meets his niece. She is in trouble and needs his help. One shot. Bittersweet conclusion.I already have a Victor/Logan story in progress that includes their usual sibling hatred. I wanted one with a slightly better outcome though this one does have a odd premise.





	By The Creed

“Are you James Howlett?” It was a teenage girl asking the question. She stood at the front door of Xavier's School in the middle of the night. 

“That's me. Who’s asking?” Logan said having no idea who this kid was or why she had showed up at the school alone or why she knew him as James. No one called him James anymore. 

The girl, a brown haired girl wearing tattered jeans and a dark wool coat, held up one hand and showed him fingernail claws. “Lucy Creed. I came to ask for your help.” 

This was Victor’s kid? She had to be. She looked enough like Victor and she had the claws and she knew his name as James Howlett. “Fine. Come in.” Logan said, leading the way into one of the living rooms. “I didn't even know Victor had a kid. What's going on?” 

Lucy took a seat in one of the easy chairs and Logan took another one. “Something really bad happened. Well, it’s been happening for a while but three months ago it got a lot worse and I don't know what to do.” 

“I think you'll have to start at the beginning,” Logan said. 

She nodded. “I guess you didn't know that your brother got married?” 

“Nope.” That was a little more shocking than finding out Victor had a kid. 

“My mom is an empath. She can sense emotion from a distance and she can transfer and absorb emotions by touch. They met during some robbery that went bad. Dad’s partners betrayed him and he was so enraged he was gonna kill everyone there. My mom was standing close enough to touch his arm and she calmed him down and convinced him to walk away. After that she never left his side. She had been in a mutant experimental facility for years before she met him and they hurt her a lot so they made an agreement, she would use her powers to help him handle his rage enough to be more human and he wouldn't allow anyone to ever hurt her again. Even when I was a little kid, those people that experimented on her would come looking for my mom sometimes and dad would just tear them apart. One time they even got into our house and we never did get rid of all the blood stains. Three months ago those people caught up to us again and they took her…” Lucy started to cry. 

“And then what?” Logan could already see that this story was not going to end well. 

“Dad went after them. He killed twenty eight people and he came back without her... Anyways, when he came back home he wouldn't speak for three days or eat or do anything and he especially wouldn't allow me to touch him. See, I have the empath ability too. Then at the end of that week at school some stranger gave me a brochure inviting me to Camp Alkali Lake. I showed it to Dad and he just lost it. He was yelling and swearing and throwing furniture. And I thought maybe since I have the same powers as my mom I could try and calm him down. I had never tried it before. Mom wouldn't let me. Now I know why. I couldn't handle it, the rage and anger and violence he feels...and the grief too...I walked away from him and went into the chicken coop and I killed all of our chickens, I just tore them apart like he would have...the baby chicks too…” Lucy was crying harder than before. 

Logan didn't know what to say. 

“And after that, when Dad found out what I did, he just left. He threw some clothes and stuff in a backpack and got in the truck and drove away. He didn't say goodbye and he didn't say where he was going or if he’d be back. He just left. After a few days I got money in the mail. I knew it was from Dad and I knew I would get in trouble at school in the fall if my teachers figured out that I was living all alone so I used it to buy a bus ticket and came here.” 

“If you're asking if you can stay here it’s fine by me.” Logan told her. “But you know your father isn't it gonna like it that you came here. He’s been trying to kill me for years.” 

“I know...and when he comes looking for you again I’ll actually be able to find him...I’m sorry. I don't know any other way to find him. When he does come here I will try to convince him not fight with you this time...I don't know if it will do any good but this was the only way I could think of to reach him.” 

Logan nodded. Her reasoning made sense. Victor was coming for him anyway. It couldn't hurt to have his kid wait here for him until he did. It wasn't her fault that any of this was happening anyway and maybe the school could do her some good. 

*****************

Lucy settled into life at the school fairly well. In the three weeks she had been there, Logan learned that the girl was a lot like her father. She was smart and able to manipulate her classmates to in subtle ways. It was never anything too bad that she got out of them, help with homework with a class she didn’t like, she convinced a girl to give her a necklace that she did like, and continued with small manipulations like that. Lucy was also fearless in the danger room. She was stronger than she looked due to her father’s mutation and had apparently been taught how to fight at some point. She could attack with a flying leap just like her father could. Sometimes the girl didn’t know when to stop and Logan had to make her back down. 

Even though she kept her distance from him, Logan was able to observe that overall Lucy was a pretty good kid. Sure she had her flaws but she was also capable of being nice to people too. She helped some of the weaker kids get rid of bullies and on several occasions helped kids who were upset to feel better by using her powers. She didn’t seem to be making any particular friends. Maybe she was just a loner. 

Then late one evening after supper Lucy knocked on Logan’s bedroom door. She hadn’t really sought him out in all the time she’d been at the school. They had talked sometimes at mealtimes but they weren’t exactly close. 

“Something wrong?” Logan asked on finding her there. 

“There’s something I have to tell you. Can I come in?” 

Logan moved out of the doorway and let her into the room. He pulled out a chair at his desk for her and sat down on the edge of the bed himself. 

Lucy sat down in the chair looking uncomfortable and worried. “It’s kind of a long story…” she began “But everyone’s going to know soon anyway so I have to try to tell you....When my Dad left it was the last week of school at home. I spent six weeks of summer vacation all alone in that house. We lived in the middle of nowhere. We didn’t have any neighbors and it was a twenty two mile walk to town so I didn’t leave the house very often. So when Nate from school showed up at my house I was already going crazy with loneliness. He said his Dad was drinking again and he just wanted to hang out somewhere other than home. I let him stay. He stayed for a week before his Dad figured out where he was and made him go home. A few weeks after that I realized I was pregnant...and I got scared...because I might have a mutant baby and I can’t protect them all on my own. They could end up spending years in a lab being tested and tortured like my mom. So I went to a clinic to terminate….except it didn’t work...there must be a healing mutation... I just figured out today that it didn’t work...I’m still pregnant…” Lucy’s hands were shaking and there were tears on her face as she waited for her Uncle to say something in reply to all that. 

“Your father shouldn’t have left you all alone like that,” Logan finally said. She was fifteen years old, had just turned fifteen that summer. She shouldn’t have been left completely alone at that age. Sure, she had made some poor choices but Victor could have helped with that if he’d been there. “Don’t worry about it, kid, we’ll figure it out somehow.” 

“You’re not mad…” It wasn’t a question, it was a realization on her part as she perceived his emotions and was surprised at what she found. 

“There wouldn’t be much sense in being angry. It wouldn’t change anything. All we can do now is try and get you through this.” 

Then Lucy was on her feet and crossed the space between them and was hugging him. The moment she touched him he was overwhelmed by the intensity of her emotions which were almost entirely fear and loneliness. The girl was terrified. Her mother had died, her father had walked out on her, and her method of dealing with the grief had only caused her more problems. The sense of abandonment she was dealing with was crippling. 

“Hey…” Logan said, hugging her a little more firmly. “It’s gonna be okay.” 

“No, it’s not…” she sobbed. “Why…? Why did he leave me? Why?” 

“Maybe he thought he was helping you by keeping you away from all his anger,” Logan told her. It sounded like Victor’s way of thinking anyway. 

“He didn’t have to leave! I would have been okay with not touching him...at least I think I would have…”

“I know,” Logan said sadly, still hugging her firmly. It was all he could really do. 

Eventually she calmed enough to sit back down in the chair across from him looking worn out. “Thank you... it helps to have an anchor sometimes.” She said rather absently then realized she needed to explain. “Mom said that some empaths need an anchor, someone who is emotionally stable to help keep them balanced when they get upset. She told me lots of times that my powers weren’t strong enough to use without an anchor, that’s why I wasn’t allowed to touch Dad if he was upset. I can absorb other people’s emotions far better than I can project them. I mean I can project whatever I’m currently feeling but I can’t just decide to project an emotion like peace or happiness and expect it to actually work. Plus sometimes when I get upset, I can’t make it stop on my own. But when he wasn’t upset, Daddy was my anchor. Anytime I was scared or sad or had a nightmare, he would hug me and I would absorb...protectiveness...love...and my fears would be gone…” Lucy told him, her jaw trembling. “I don’t know how to do this without him.” 

“Look he’s going to come looking for me eventually. He always does and when that happens we’ll straighten all this out. In the meantime if you need an anchor...I can do this again.” 

The next evening Logan was in one of the living rooms with TV on when Lucy passed by. She stopped and came back into the room after she passed it. She hesitated for a moment before crossing the room and sitting down next to him on the sofa. She didn’t have to say anything for him to understand why she was there. He reached over and put his arm around her shoulders and was flooded once again with feelings of fear and loneliness and this time there was another emotion in the mix. 

“You’re angry,” Logan said. “Did something happen today?” 

“Miss Munroe made me go see a doctor,” Lucy said. “She said it was your idea.” 

“It was. I thought you’d be more comfortable going with her.” 

“Yeah, that’s fine. It’s just...the nurse tried to give me a lecture about making better choices and not being a slut…” A few angry tears slid down Lucy’s cheeks. “Miss Munroe told her to shut up and mind her own business so it’s not as if she got to say much but…” 

“But it’s still bothering you,” Logan finished for her. 

She nodded. “It’s only going to get worse from here. Other people are gonna say stuff too and even when they don’t say anything I’ll be able to feel their judgement.”

“Even if you do everything perfect there will always be people who will judge you. Happens to everyone.” 

“Yes but it’s easier to ignore people judging you when you know they’re wrong. That nurse wasn’t wrong. I knew I was being stupid. I knew I should have sent Nate home the moment he knocked on the door. Dad didn’t let me visit with boys alone. But I was too lonely to say no.” Lucy said with a sniffle. 

“Did you have other boyfriends before Nate?” 

“No. Never like that.” Lucy told him. “And I didn’t even think I liked Nate. I thought he was just a friend until that first night we were watching a movie and he held my hand. Then everything changed.” 

“You didn’t like him until he touched you?” Logan was a little concerned about that. 

“I didn’t. Do you think…?” 

He nodded. “I think he used your powers against you. Maybe he didn’t know that’s what was happening, but I’m pretty sure it did.” 

“I should start wearing gloves,” Lucy said, a little shaken. 

“Yeah, you should.” Logan agreed. 

Lucy was silent a moment longer as she thought about all of this and then she started crying, really crying as the implications of her powers and what had actually happened hit her. Logan put both arms around her and held her while she sobbed. He realized as he did so that Lucy was going to need to be watched more closely than he had been doing. If the people around her could manipulate her emotions by touch then she was very vulnerable. Not only because of what the boys her age might do but because she had the potential to be forced into some sort of weapon x type program. She was strong, indestructible, had claws, had the ability to fight well, and could be influenced by touch. If people in charge of those programs ever figured out what she was, Lucy would never be safe. 

“You’re worried about me?” Lucy asked, still clinging to his shirt as she hugged him. 

“Sorry, that probably doesn’t help you feel any better.” 

“No, it does help. It means I’m not alone in this, that someone actually cares…” 

Logan didn’t say anything to that, he just hugged her a little more firmly knowing that she would understand from the hug that he did care and she wasn’t alone. 

***************

In the days that followed, Logan did watch his niece more closely. She wore gloves but that wasn’t enough of course to cover every inch of skin so on occasion people did touch her. Whenever he saw it happen he made a point to go to her and place a hand on her shoulder to give her a chance to reset her emotions the be free of the influence of whoever had touched her. They thought about making an announcement, making a rule that no one at school was to touch Lucy but she was afraid to do that, afraid of letting people know how vulnerable she was so they decided against it. 

Each evening she came and sat with him to watch TV or to go into the city with him if that’s what he had planned that night. In just a few weeks time he grew to love that kid like a daughter and he knew by the emotions she was projecting that she felt the same way. Then late one evening she had fallen asleep in front of the TV with her head on his shoulder and she woke with a gasp. He felt a rush of terror flow through her. 

“What is it?” Logan asked. 

“Smell that?” she asked. 

Sometimes he forgot that she had Victor’s sense of smell too. “Yeah, there’s something different in the air.” he agreed, still not sure what the concern was. 

“That’s Malcolm Colcord. He ran the lab that had my mom…” Lucy pulled away from him and got to her feet. “Dad said that same lab had you once too and that you gave Malcolm some scars when you escaped.” 

“I don’t remember much about that,” Logan said, getting to his feet to help her. “What are you planning to do, run or fight?” 

“That depends on how many he brought with him,” Lucy said, moving to the window, the she stopped suddenly, sniffing the air. Logan smelled it too. “Daddy?” The window was forgotten as Lucy ran for the front door. 

Logan followed her, wary of what he was getting himself into. Lucy flung open the front door. Victor was standing out in plain sight at the bottom of the steps. “Lucy?” he seemed more than surprised to find her there.  
She ran down the steps and hugged him and if Victor had come to the school for Logan or just as part of his chase with Malcolm Colcord he seemed to forget all of that as he dropped his bags to the ground, and wrapped his arms around Lucy, lifting her off her feet to hug her. She was careful not to touch his skin but she clung to him tightly nonetheless. When he finally let go of her Logan expected the fight would begin, either Malcolm would come out of hiding or Victor would attack him. 

“Why did you leave me?” Lucy asked him, her voice breaking when Victor let her go. 

“It was for your own good,” Victor said. “What are you doing here?” 

“I came to find you. I knew you’d come here eventually,” she told him. 

“You shouldn’t have done that. You’re better off without me.” 

“I am not better off without you,” Lucy argued. 

“Of course you are kid. If I stayed around I would have ruined you with all my rage and anger. You didn’t need that. You still don’t need it. Now get out of the way while I do what I came here for,” Victor said, taking her by the shoulders and pushing her aside. 

“No!” she moved to stand in his way and put a hand on his chest. “I’m not gonna let you do that!” 

“You’re not gonna stop me,” Victor said through gritted teeth. He started to push her aside, though he did it rather gently. 

“Dad, look at me,” Lucy said. Victor ignored her. “Look at me!” 

Angry, Victor looked at his daughter and seemed to realize for the first time that she was visibly pregnant. He stopped trying to push past her. “What the hell..?” 

Lucy was trembling as she waited for the rest of his reaction. 

“When did this happen?” Victor asked her. 

“After you left me. I was alone in the house for six weeks. Nate Walters showed up to visit me,” Lucy told him anxiously. 

“That ugly ass kid from the trailer park?” 

“I never even liked him. I didn’t know that my powers could be used against me. I’m sorry.” Lucy said, still worried. 

“Maybe I’m here to kill the wrong person. I should go back to that trailer park and-” 

“No!” Lucy cut him off. “Nate didn’t know about my powers. He didn’t know that’s what he was doing. You’re not gonna kill Nate and you’re not gonna kill your brother either!” 

“Fine, Nate can live, but Jimmy isn’t gonna be so lucky,” Victor went up one step. Logan’s claws came out. 

Lucy got in her father’s path again and shoved him back down the step. “What the hell is wrong with you?” she shouted at him. “You left me! You left me all alone...and you KNEW that it was possible for people to manipulate my emotions and you left me anyway without ever making that clear to me! And now you want to kill the person who take care of me after you abandoned me? I’m not gonna let you do that!” 

“Lucy….get out of the way,” Victor said firmly. 

“No.” she replied just as firmly. 

“What makes you think I won’t hurt you to get to him? You already know how much of an animal I am.” Victor said, trying to convince her to move. 

“Even animals protect their own young. You won’t hurt me. I’m not moving.” 

“So what do you expect me to do then? Just walk away?” Victor asked, irritated. 

“Yeah, walk away. You’re good at that.” 

“Do you think I wanted to walk away from you?” Victor asked. 

“I don’t know what you wanted!” Lucy shouted. 

“I didn’t want you to turn out like me,” Victor admitted. 

Lucy shrugged. “Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if I did.” 

“You’re really not gonna move out of my way?” Victor said to her. 

“I’m not.” 

Victor sighed. “Then I guess I’ll just keep after Malcolm for a while longer. His trail went past here.” He moved to go. 

“Victor!” Logan spoke up before his brother could leave. “Take her with you this time.” He didn’t really want Lucy to leave. He liked her company and he cared about her but the girl needed her father. 

Victor stopped, looking hesitant. Lucy was pale faced and anxious as she waited for his decision. Her hands were shaking. 

“Fine.” Victor said after a moment. “Go get your stuff.” 

Lucy ran back into the house to pack up her stuff, leaving Logan and Victor alone on the front steps. 

“She’s a good kid,” Logan said. “Not much like you at all.” That wasn’t entirely true. Lucy was like Victor but not in the ways that mattered. 

Victor nodded. “Thanks for looking out for her.” 

Moments later Lucy was back with two bags full of her things. She dropped them on the steps and stopped to give her Uncle a hug as she was leaving. All he felt from her this time was relief and thankfulness. The fear and loneliness that had been with her these past weeks was largely faded. He knew it was the right thing to send her back to her father but he hadn’t expected it would be this difficult. Lucy pulled away from him and met his eyes. 

“It’s really not right of me to abandon you after everything you’ve done for me.” she said sadly. 

“It’s alright kid. Everyone leaves sometime,” he said but he was sure she knew how he felt about it in spite of his words. 

Victor was already starting to walk away. Lucy pulled away from his hug and ran after her father. It was the right thing that she go with him and seeing her smile as she caught up to her father helped to make it worth it to let her go.


End file.
